Two Blairgowrie Primary School Grade 6s have gone to extreme measures to illustrate the problem of pollution in our oceans.
The morning of 26 March saw the school’s swimming pool filled with hundreds of plastic bottles with the youngsters trying to swim among them.
As part of their Science Expo project, the Grade 6s at the school were tasked with a project to raise awareness about the environment.
Aeryn Pretorius and Leah Cornell chose this project to illustrate how mankind is destroying the oceans with plastic and how we all can raise awareness about the problem.
Aeryn’s mother Felicity said, “The aim of their project was to create awareness on how plastic is affecting our oceans and environment, and to get as many people in the Blairgowrie community to start reducing, reusing and recycling plastic.”
Another concerned parent, Leah’s mother Susie Cornell added, “This amazing project that the girls have put together looks at how we all can easily reduce the amount of plastic we use. Whether this is by reusing, recycling or simply reducing. This is important because plastic is the largest source of ocean litter.”
Over the past 50 years, plastic has become a standard in our lives. Every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. Plastic doesn’t decompose, it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.
Tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every year from plastic bags in the marine environment as they often mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish.
At a global level, the problem is the massive amount of plastic discarded after single use, which is not being recycled and could eventually end up in the ocean. Human beings are suffocating the ocean with plastic.
One million plastic bottles are bought every minute worldwide, and less than 50 per cent are recycled. Next year, more than 300 million tons of plastic will be produced worldwide.
Cornell continued, “Mankind’s plastic invasion of the marine world is significant, and the oceans are choking. It is so severe that the United Nations has included it in the Sustainable Development Goals under Goal 14 that by 2025 the world has to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris.”
Details: Blairgowrie Primary School 011 782 5406.
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